Parts Of Speech

Introduction:
Learning about the parts of speech is the first step in grammar study just as learning the letters of the alphabet is
the first step to being able to read and write. From learning the parts of speech we begin to understand the use
or function of words and how words are joined together to make meaningful communication. To understand
what a part of speech is, you must understand the idea of putting similar things together into group’s or
categories. Let's look at some examples of categories.

COLORS FRUITS DRINKS LANGUAGES

blue banana milk Spanish
red apple water Arabic
yellow orange soda Japanese
green grape beer English
black lemon coffee Korean

Colors, fruits, drinks, and languages are categories. If I tell you that Grebo is a language, you would understand
exactly what Grebo is. If we did not have the category language, it would be hard to explain what is meant by
the word Grebo. It is very convenient to have categories to talk about similar things. Let's look at some more
examples of categories. In the list below, which does not belong with the others?

a) Violin
b) hammer
c) drums
d) piano
e) guitar

If you chose hammer, you are right. Violin, drums, piano, and guitar are used to make music, but a hammer is
not used to make music. Hammer doesn’t fit with the other words because it is a tool and all of the others
are musical instruments.

When you look up a word in a dictionary, you will find not only the meaning of the word but also what part of
speech it is. This information is very helpful in understanding the full meaning of the word and knowing how
to use it.
The 8 parts of speech that are used to describe English words are:

1. Nouns
2. Verbs
3. Adjectives
4. Adverbs
5. Pronouns
6. Prepositions
7. Conjunctions
8. Articles

Noun
A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing. Here are some examples
of nouns: boy, river, friend, Gujrat, triangle, day, school, truth, university, idea, Quid E Azam, movie,
aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher, class, grammar. Quid E Azam is a noun because it is the name of a
person. Gujrat is a noun because it is the name of a place, and boy is a noun because it is the name of a thing.

Noun can be divide into 2 groups

Proper nouns
Common nouns.

Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person
place or thing. Some examples of proper nouns are: Gujrat, Quid E Azam , Minar E Pakistan, February,
Monday, slamabad, Mohsin,. If you see a word beginning with a capital letter in in the middle of a sentence, it
is probably a proper noun. Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a capital letter; For example
boy, market, city, man etc. Common nouns represent common things.

Verb
A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being. The verb is the heart of a sentence -
every sentence must have a verb. Recognizing the verb is often the most important step in understanding the
meaning of a sentence. In the sentence “The dog bit the man” bit is the verb and the word which shows the
action of the sentence. In the sentence “The man is sitting on a chair” even though the action doesn't show
much activity, sitting is the verb of the sentence. In the sentence She is a smart girl, there is no action but a
state of being expressed by the verb is. The word be is different from other verbs in many ways but can still be
thought of as a verb.
Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form. Sometimes endings are added (learn -
learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught). The different forms of verbs show
different meanings related to such things as tense (past, present, future), person(first person, second person,
third person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive).
 Adjective
An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a noun or
pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in terms of such qualities as size, color, number, and kind. In the
sentence “The lazy dog sat on the rug”, the word lazy is an adjective which gives more information about the
noun dog. We can add more adjectives to describe the dog as well as in the sentence “The lazy, old,
brown dog sat on the rug”. We can also add adjectives to describe the rug as in the sentence “The lazy, old,
brown dog sat on the beautiful, expensive, new rug.” The adjectives do not change the basic meaning or
structure of the sentence, but they do give a lot more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in
the example above, when more than one adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the adjectives.

Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come after a form of the
word be as in The man is tall. More than one adjective can be used in this position in the sentence The man
is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how to make comparisons with adjectives.

Most adjectives do not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural. For example we
say big tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good times. There are, however,
some adjectives that do have different singular and plural forms. The common words this and that have
the plural forms these and those. These words are called demonstrative adjectives because demonstrate or point
out what is being referred to.

Adverb
We have seen that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. An adverb is
usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another
adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such qualities as time,
frequency and manner. In the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes how or the manner in which Sue runs. In
the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs.

Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is
an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be made into
an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely.

Pronoun
A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun. For example, instead of saying John
is a student, the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student.
We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not have to keep on repeating a noun. This chapter is
about the kind of pronoun called a personal pronoun because it often refers to a person. Like nouns, personal
pronouns sometimes have singular and plural forms (I-we, he-they).
Unlike nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male,
feminine/female and neuter (he-she-it). Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different forms depending
on if they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a word which does an action and usually
comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb. For
example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object.
The pronoun she can be used instead of Susan and the pronoun her can be used instead of mother. The form of
a personal pronoun also changes according to what person is referred to. Person is used here as a grammar
word and means:
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you),
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).

Preposition
A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships
include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount. In the sentence she went to the store, to be
a preposition which shows direction. In the sentence He came by bus, by is a preposition which shows manner.
In the sentence they will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time and in the sentence It is
under the table, under is a preposition which shows place.

A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the preposition.
The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is called a preposition.
The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase.

Conjunction
A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and Dan are
friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the sentence He will drive or fly,
the conjunction or connects two verbs. In the sentence It is early but we can go, the conjunction butconnects
two groups of words.

Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The most common
ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways:

and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank.
or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday.
but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong.
so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be discussed more in
another class. For now, you should know some of the more common subordinating conjunctions such as:
 After before unless
Although if until
As since when
Because than while

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the sentence Both Jan and Meg are
good swimmers, both . . . and are correlative conjunctions. The most common correlative conjunctions are:

Both . . .and
Either . . . or
neither . . . nor
not only . . . but also

Article
An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun. There are
only two articles and the, but they are used very often and are important for using English accurately.

The word a (which becomes a when the next word begins with a vowel - a, e, i, o, u) is called the indefinite
article because the noun it goes with is indefinite or general. The meaning of the article is similar to the
number one, but one is stronger and gives more emphasis. It is possible to say I have a book or I have one
book, but the second continence emphasizes that I do not have two or three or some other number of books.

The word The is known as the definite article and indicates a specific thing. The difference between the
sentences I sat on a chair and I sat on the chair is that the second sentence refers to a particular, specific chair,
not just any chair.

Many nouns, especially singular forms of countable nouns which you will learn about later, must have
an article. In English, it is not possible to say I sat on the chair without an article, but a demonstrative or
possessive adjective can be used instead of an article as in the sentences I sat on that chair and I sat on his chair.

Whenever you see an article, you will find a noun with it. The noun may be the next word as in the man or
there may be adjectives and perhaps adverbs between the article and the noun as in the very angry, young man.